Google's Android OS has gained an astonishing 7 points of market share in the US smartphone market in the past three months, Comscore says.

RIM's market share over the same period collapsed, dropping almost 5 points.

Apple's share increased slightly, but is dead in the water and has now fallen way behind Android. Android now has a third of the US market (33%). RIM's share has plummeted to 29%. Apple is holding at 25%. In the "also ran" category, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 did nothing to stop its decline, which fell from 9% to 7.7%. And Palm, which is barely worth mentioning anymore, fell another point to 2.8%.

Why do the Android gains matter? Are Apple bulls right that Apple has an insurmountable hold on the "premium" segment of the market and that it doesn't matter who has the other 75%?

The Android gains matter because technology platform markets tend to standardize around a single dominant platform (see Windows in PCs, Facebook in social, Google in search). And the more dominant the platform becomes, the more valuable it becomes and the harder it becomes to dislodge. The network effect kicks in, and developers building products designed to work with the platform devote more and more of their energy to the platform. The reward for building and working with other platforms, meanwhile, drops, and gradually developers stop developing for them

I just bought the Android 2.2 HTC Insight 4G. The 8MB Ram, 1ghz cpu, flashplayer 10.1 on that thing delivers the best H264 high-def video I have ever seen, and the cpu problems with flashplayer are GONE now. 8mpixel HD camera with a flash the brightness of the sun, with HD VIdeo recording / playback.

My wife dropped her IPhone like a bad habit. I suspect my youngest son will want one now too.

Android suffers from fragmentation and Google is starting to exert more control over the so-called "open" platform. Motorola, for one, is hedging its bets.

From now on, companies hoping to receive early access to Googles most up-to-date software will need approval of their plans. And they will seek that approval from Andy Rubin, the head of Googles Android group. Businessweek

Motorola Mobility has hired a number of experienced mobile and Web engineers from Apple and Adobe and is developing a Web-based mobile operating system as a possible alternative to Googles Android software, according to a source familiar with the matter. InformationWeek

It's interesting that Apple's marketshare is so large for having so few handset models: iPhone 4 and iPhone 3gs.

5
posted on 04/02/2011 5:24:00 PM PDT
by newzjunkey
(Obama will be president until Fri, Jan 20, 2017.)

This is a kind of lame analysis. RIM and Apple make “products”. That is, hardware, software, service etc.

Android is an operating system -not a product. It is used by any manufacturer that wishes to use it. Android could accurately be described as the mobile OS for everyone that is not RIM or Apple. It seems that the market is much more likely to solidify in thirds with RIM, and Apple,holding close to a third, and everybody else sharing the balance using Android.

Iphone and Blackberry have fairly decent market segmentation. Blackberry is a tool used to do work, Iphone is a fashion accessory used to look very very cool.

The OS or even the hardware platform isn’t the critical factor - smart engineers will innovate and continually improve both. Apple’s biggest contribution was the overall business model, which combined innovative yet solid hardware and software development environment with a back-office that made it simple and easy for non-techie users to customize their devices to their hearts desire. The rapid adoption of the product created an instant market for software apps and more software apps solidified the market position of the product - an extremely virtuous cycle.

Now the problem is - Apple has schooled its competitors and while they still have a large base they no longer are unique. Once a feature or benefit becomes commonplace it turns into a commodity and no longer enables a company to demand a premium for it. And competing on the basis of price is not something Apple is good at.

Honestly, I’d wait a few months either way. If you’re on Verizon, the first LTE (”4G”) phones are currently rolling out, but there are bound to be problems in the first gen, and I think the second gen will have a lot more to offer (this summer/fall). A good LTE phone to look at is the Droid Bionic (coming summer).

If you want an iPhone, the current gen (iPhone 4) is nearly a year old and is due for a refresh either this summer (if their yearly schedule continues) or this fall/winter (if the rumors hold).

19
posted on 04/02/2011 6:28:35 PM PDT
by Echo4C
(We have it in our power to begin the world over again. --Thomas Paine)

Is this article a joke? The author needs to take a remedial economics 101 course. See the stunning charts below. Market share is meaningless. Apple has a tiny market share, but overwhelms all other vendors in PROFITS. Android is just a fly on Apple's ass right now, and for the forseeable future, until and unless something changes about the models in place.

Android is and will continue to be open source, Google is just delaying the release of the source code on some revisions. Technically, if they don’t release the source code they will be in violation of some licenses.

I honestly don’t know why people think Apple - a company that repeatedly has aligned itself with liberal causes and routinely pulls apps from their app store that violate their ideology - is any better than Google. Hell, it’s not like iOS was ever even open source to begin with.

23
posted on 04/02/2011 6:33:27 PM PDT
by Echo4C
(We have it in our power to begin the world over again. --Thomas Paine)

RIMs latest BlackBerry playbook uses a QNX based OS, and rumor has it that their next phone OS will have the same roots. I am typing this reply on my BlackBerry Bold 9650, which is a great smartphone, but I will admit that I have a jones for an HTC Thunderbolt.

I dont have much experience with Apple but from what I have seen it is UNIX thru and thru the olb IBM Unix I think
. The only reason Mac is not open source is Apple has enough money to attack anyone who says anything,it will be the same with Google.
I think Google has said it was going to release source code a 100 times already so I am with you on that!

28
posted on 04/02/2011 6:46:10 PM PDT
by Lees Swrd
("Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well")

“I honestly dont know why people think Apple - a company that repeatedly has aligned itself with liberal causes and routinely pulls apps from their app store that violate their ideology - is any better than Google.”

Apple is maintaining some level of quality control with iOS apps. Many of the standards, such as no porn, should find some support here on FR. I have some problems with their guidelines, but overall they’re proving very successful.

Google, on the other hand, seems to be hellbent on ending privacy as a concept. I have a BIG problem with that.

“Hell, its not like iOS was ever even open source to begin with.”

Major portions are. Check out this list from MacOS 10.6.7, and bear in mind that most of iOS (except for the UI layer) are the same as MacOS.

iPhone? No keyboard, no sale. Regardless of OS, at least there are phones running Android that have actual slide-out keyboards. So per my important feature list, they win, and stupid touch screen iPhones lose.

“Apple’s share increased slightly, but is dead in the water and has now fallen way behind Android. Android now has a third of the US market (33%). ... Apple is holding at 25%.”

Huh? One company is dead in the water when that ONE company holds a full quarter of the market and is growing? vs. taking dozens of companies ganging up to get a mere - considering dozens ganging up on one - one third of the market? On top of that, it’s been near a year since that one company refreshed the product that holds one full quarter of the whole market! That’s not dead in the water, that’s kicking ass.

This is what was in the email (and is exactly the same as droid-life.com):

Things are about to get even testier when it comes to the battle between good and evil. Our friends at Verizon just shot over this document which appears to detail a dual-mega-launch of epic proportions. How does a June 9th launch of both the DROID BIONIC and iPhone 5 sound?

There are Verizon insider tips all over the web when it comes to phones. Heck, even Motorola let stuff 'slip' about $200 off a Xoom with a special code.

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